The Ape People Had Memory Machines

March 1, 2006 9:11 AM

I read this book in the late '70s about a secret colony of people who were turning themselves into people/ape hybrids. It was pretty clearly juvenile lit, but I still need it for my shelves.

I only remember a few details:

Some guy finds out about a secret colony of scientists who have fled society to live in the jungle or mountains. They're doing some sort of experiments on themselves to meld ape DNA with their own because, their reasoning goes, apes are gentler and nicer than people.

The plot, as I remember it, involves our hero falling in with the ape people and maybe falling for an ape person girl and beginning to undergo the treatment, then deciding man wasn't meant to be a pacifist ape living in an underground techo-utopian lair with special learning machines that teach you while you sleep.

I don't remember whether he leaves peacefully, keeping their secret, or violently. I think peacefully.

The only other detail I've got is the cover, which I remember as having sort of primitive drawings of the faces of some of the ape people. Maybe nine (sort of like an ape people Brady Bunch introduction).

I thought the book was entitled simply "The Ape People," but that seems to be a 1972 book by someone who actually worked at a primate center.

posted by mph to media & arts (7 comments total)

I have no idea what this story was called, but I can heartily recommend The Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family, which may prove illuminating.
posted by meehawl at 11:13 AM on March 1, 2006

I have never heard of this Ape-people book of which you speak - but I would really like to read it.
posted by sluggo at 1:44 PM on March 1, 2006

Don't know what the book is, but BoingBoing had a post last week about a family in Turkey who have reverted to walking on all fours.
posted by dripdripdrop at 2:02 PM on March 1, 2006

Could it be the novelization of this classic series?
posted by rob511 at 2:19 PM on March 1, 2006

Try the librarians on the Fiction-L list; they answer this sort of question all the time, and it's easy to subscribe, ask, get your info and unsubscribe.
posted by mediareport at 9:00 PM on March 1, 2006

It's The Human Apes, by Dale Carlson. At Amazon here.

Strangely enough, I was just thinking about this book yesterday, too. I read it dozens of times as a kid, but couldn't remember the title, either.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:23 AM on March 2, 2006

Flo got it! Awesome! I just ordered a copy and picked up The Enormous Egg while I was there to further sate my juvie lit jones for the month.

Time for a new nagging backburner obsession.
posted by mph at 10:39 AM on March 2, 2006